This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the presently described embodiments. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present embodiments. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
In order to meet consumer and industrial demand for natural resources, companies often invest significant amounts of time and money in searching for and extracting oil, natural gas, and other subterranean resources from the earth. Particularly, once a desired subterranean resource is discovered, drilling and production systems are often employed to access and extract the resource. These systems may be located onshore or offshore depending on the location of a desired resource. Further, such systems generally include a wellhead assembly through which the resource is extracted. These wellhead assemblies may include a wide variety of components, such as various casings, valves, fluid conduits, and the like, that control drilling or extraction operations.
More particularly, wellhead assemblies often include a blowout preventer, such as a ram-type blowout preventer that uses one or more pairs of opposing rams that press to one another to restrict flow of fluid through the blowout preventer. The rams typically include main bodies (or ram blocks) that receive sealing elements (or ram packers) that press together when a pair of opposing rams close against one another. The ram packers gradually wear and may be replaced as needed. But once installed and used in the ram blocks, the ram packers are often difficult to remove. Current techniques for removing the ram packers from the ram blocks include heating the packers to burn off elastomeric elements of the packers, freezing the packers (e.g., with liquid nitrogen) and breaking the elastomeric elements, using a chisel to gouge out pieces of the packer, and using a pry bar to remove the packer. Such techniques are frequently time consuming (in some instances taking hours), inefficient, and may even cause accidental damage to the ram block.